Coconut Bones
by Swordage
Summary: Fullmetal Alchemist fusion. Ed's trying to find his way home, and he finds some friendship for his troubles.
1. Coconut Bones

Inspired by Laylah's drabble.

* * *

Riku slid the last hand-carved pin into place and sat back with a self-satisfied grin. "There," he declared. "Now let's get you on your feet and toss that stupid crutch."

Sora bumped him out of the way, peering at the peculiar contraption of bamboo and palm. "Does it hurt?" he demanded. "It looks like it should hurt, getting stuff shoved in you like that."

Ed smiled wearily. "No, it doesn't hurt now. The nerve connections are stable. As long as I don't get any sand in there, I should be fine."

Riku kicked the back of Sora's knee in revenge, stepping over the indignant pile to offer a hand to Ed. "Up you go," he said cheerfully.

Ed eyed his hand warily. "I'm not too sure about this."

"C'mon, what's the worst that could happen?" Riku poked Sora without looking, apparently knowing the other boy was attempting to pounce on him. Sora deflated at the poke, sadly sticking his lip out. Ed bit back a chuckle and finally took Riku's hand.

"Alley-oop!" Riku pulled firmly, but Ed was glad to note that he didn't yank as he often did with Sora. Catching his balance once up was a tricky thing, and he took a moment to lean on Riku and check the swing of the wooden prosthetic.

"Nice," he finally declared, tentatively putting his weight on it. "Did you make sure it'll hold up?"

"Hell yeah," Riku replied, keeping a hand ready to catch Ed nonetheless. "Jumped on that thing every way I could think of, and then had Sora try a few that I didn't."

"And then we threw it off a couple rocks to see if it'd take that, and some of it splintered a little but that was all, so Riku said it would keep you going for a week before he'd need to start replacing bits, and he fixed the parts that got messed up and OW! Riku, don't hit me!" Sora flung himself at the silver-haired boy and then went down in a heap, nearly taking Ed with them. He quickly shuffled out of the way, careful of how he placed his new foot. He should really be used to them by now, but their tussles always managed to surprise him with their lack of ferocity. Well, except for when Sora would bite Riku's toes, because Riku was deadly ticklish and tended to lash out blindly whenever that happened.

Shaking his head as the wrestling match continued, Ed began to practice walking. He had to set his weight down at a certain point in the swing of the leg, he found, or it would threaten to buckle. Cautiously, he walked back and forth along the well-beaten path by the waterfall. He looked up when the other two fell into the pool, though, and stepped at the wrong moment - his leg bent sharply, and he tumbled sideways with a yelp.

"Hey, stranger," Riku grinned at him. They were all seated in the pool now, picking wet hair out of their eyes. Ed sighed and rubbed absently at the roughened metal of his shoulder.

"Hey yourself," Sora supplied, and Riku rolled his eyes and poked Sora's tummy. He was rewarded with a swift squeal and doubling-over, much to his amusement.

"Does it swing far enough forward?" Riku asked Ed, nodding towards the leg. Ed nodded, carefully standing again. Getting the leg to swing right against the current was difficult, though, and he had to shimmy up the bank to sit on the edge of the path. It was still better than having only a leg and a crutch, though, so he was hardly about to complain.

"You'll want to be careful on sand, too. This part is level, but you'll have to walk the beach to get anywhere," Riku warned. Ed grimaced. He hadn't thought of that.

"But you can kick things!" Sora announced cheerfully. "Like fish! Hey, I wonder if you could fish by kicking the water. D'you think that would work, Riku?"

"No, doofus," Riku grinned. "You scare them away just by splashing around, let alone kicking them."

"You could spear them," Ed suggested. "It's a pain, though."

"Yeah, and then you have to gut them and cook them and it's icky." Sora wrinkled his nose descriptively, and Riku poked his shoulder again.

"Who has to do all that, mister? I seem to recall you and Kairi refusing to even look at the things after catching them, hmm?" Riku grinned at Sora's prompt outrage and shoved his head under the water. "Here, go cool down."

"Jeez, don't drown him!" Ed scolded Riku, tossing a pebble at him.

"Nah, he's a fish," Riku replied, but let up on Sora anyway. The flustered sputtering that followed was certainly amusing, and Sora didn't truly seem bothered, so Ed let it slide.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Riku finally asked Ed, and gestured at the beach. "We'll make sure you don't fall."

"More likely to knock me down yourselves," Ed replied with a grin, and Sora let up punching Riku's stomach with an indignant cry.

"We'd never!" he declared, throwing a fist in the air defiantly. "We'll stand by you through thick and thin! Never let you down!"

"That's what he's afraid of," Riku replied dryly, but Sora manfully refrained from exacting revenge for the slight against his pride.

"C'mon, Ed, let's go!" he cried, jumping up next to the blond. Ed eyed the hand that was shoved in his face with a certain amount of distrust.

"Where are we going?" Ed asked, tentatively putting out his own hand. Sora pulled a little too hard, and he stumbled forward, but found Riku there to catch him. On his own two feet once more, he growled and pointedly put his arm on Sora's head. The boy whined pathetically at the reminder that he was, indeed, the shortest one there.

"We're gonna go swimming," Riku replied, and Ed felt a sudden thrill of terror at the identical looks of determination that came into both boys' eyes.

"Oh no we're not!" he cried, awkwardly stumbling back, but Sora grabbed his arm and Riku grabbed his leg and they carried him, thrashing and screeching, down to the edge of the beach.

"One, two, three!" Riku shouted, and they swung him in.

"Wow," Sora said admiringly, "he made a big splash."

"Yep," Riku replied.

"I bet that leg?s kinda heavy," Sora said with a bit of worry.

"Yeah, a little," Riku shrugged.

"...Riku, have you ever seen him swim?" Sora asked, already beginning to wade out.

"...Shut up," Riku muttered, and they were quick to haul Ed out and pound his back while he sputtered curses at them.


	2. Poolside

It's deathly quiet on Riku's islet at night, and Ed huddles closer to the little firepit in the middle of it. He should be used to it now, being alone out here when the kids have gone to their homes to sleep, but he's always startled by how the birds fall silent and the waves hush each other. It's cold, too, and his automail ports itch. He suspects they'll need to be taken out soon, before he gets blood poisoning from the rust that's resisted every scrub and oil he's inflicted on it.

He hears an odd splash, and it doesn't sound like a fish being playful, so he twists around and stares out into the darkness between the trees. Another splash, past the paopu tree, and he tenses. There - a boat.

He relaxes almost immediately upon sighting it, though; the shine of Riku's hair is even more brilliant in moonlight than during the day. He just turns back to the fire and waits for the boy to tie up his rowboat and join him.

It's not too long before Riku flops next to him and scoots close. "Brr," he declares, dramatically shivering. "It's freezing out here! You're nuts, not wanting to stay with one of us where it's warm."

"I've lived on an island before," Ed shrugs. He has to admit, the pressure of Riku's shoulder against his empty port is almost a relief, distracting him from the itch.

"Yeah, you mentioned that. And there was a big monster trying to eat you then, too," Riku gins.

"I was little then," Ed says defensively, and Riku nods knowingly. Ed can't help but offer a small smile to the other boy. "Thanks," he says softly.

"It's what friends do," Riku answers, solemn all at once, and Ed sees a bit of that darkness that sometimes makes Riku look old and grey. He stretches out a leg to thump against Riku's.

"Stop that," he murmurs. "You're not allowed to be an adult yet."

Riku catches his foot and uses it to lever Ed onto his back. "Then neither are you!" he cries, and quickly winds his fingers between the bamboo poles of Ed's other leg to avoid being hit.

"Cheat!" is Ed's response before he twists his body, pulling the other boy off his feet and grabbing his shirt. They tussle until they sweat, the cold seeping in to remind them to behave. Once they're comfortable next to the fire again, Riku reaches out to examine Ed's false leg.

"Is it holding up alright?" he asks, fingers skating along the carefully-carved knee joint. "I wasn't too sure about this part, thought it might be a little too delicate."

"It's fine," Ed replies, lifting his leg a bit for better inspection. "It's more than fine. I never thought you could make something like this, though. Sora said the most painstaking work you did before was a raft, and that's just a tad different."

"I did finer work when he wasn't there," Riku murmurs, and his fingers slide up the hollowed palm trunk of Ed's lower thigh to check for fractures of the wood. "Here, hold still. This connection's loose."

Ed holds still, eyes fixed on the silver head bent intently over his leg. He can hear the click of a pin sliding home, and then Riku sits back with a satisfied smirk.

"That was the hardest part," he tells Ed. "Making sure the connection would hold. That and getting the right angles of motion with the knee."

"What kind of stuff did you do before this?" Ed asks, leaning forward and wrapping his arm around his knee. "I've heard stories about Sora, but nothing about you."

Riku sits back hard, turning away suddenly. "I don't talk about it," he says shortly. "Not even to Sora."

"He wouldn't understand." Ed doesn't reach out to touch Riku. They both might still be boys, but they grew past mother's hugs a long time ago.

"No," Riku sighs. "He wouldn't. We used to understand each other, before it all happened."

"Yeah. I know what that's like." Ed stares up at the sky, waiting for the afterimages of the fire and Riku's hair to fade so he can see the stars.

"You don't say much, either." Riku shifts so they're shoulder-to-shoulder again, but he stares blankly into the darkness.

"There's not much to say," Ed murmurs. "I fucked up. Bad. A lot."

"Yeah," Riku smiles bitterly. "So did I."

"Sora forgives you, though." Ed nudges Riku again. "Look up there. A shooting star."

"A what?" Riku's tense beside him suddenly, his head shooting back to look. "Shit. I hope that was a meteor."

"It was." Ed has no idea, really, but he doesn't want to deal with it if it wasn't. "Trust me."

Riku slowly subsides, going back to his vigil against the night. Ed watches the sky, watches the fire, watches him.

"I have a brother," he offers finally. "Alphonse."

"That's why you're trying to find ways between the worlds?" Riku turns to look at him. A trick of the firelight makes his eyes look like a cat's, bright and slit-pupiled. "Be careful. I probably don't need to tell you, but be very damn careful."

"What kind of things did you do when Sora wasn't looking?" Ed asks again, holding that eerie gaze. He's faced down worse, no matter how ominous Riku gets.

Riku's the first to drop his gaze, letting it slide over to the yellow fruit behind Ed. "I took people's hearts," he says carefully. "I made them into nothing. I opened their chests and tugged the fibers of their lives onto the ground."

"I killed people." It's equivalent trade, Ed tells himself, ignoring the sudden chill that makes his skin prickle and his hair stand on end. "My mother and two men. One was an accident, but he's still dead. I nearly killed my brother. He was twelve when I caused him to lose his body."

"We both grew up, but you grew more than I did." Riku wraps his arms around his legs, unconsciously copying Ed's posture. "You've been an adult for a long time, I think."

"Yeah." Ed leans a little more against Riku. "I'm just glad Al survived it, when I was trying to figure things out. How to feed us, how to get money when we were too young to work."

"You'll find him," Riku says, and his voice is certain. "You'll go home."

"Thanks," Ed murmurs, and they stay like that until morning.


End file.
